A former Israeli prime minister has acknowledged that the country smuggled Starlink internet receivers into Iran to help anti-government protesters, though he said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government failed to follow through on the plans, Reuters reports.
Naftali Bennett, who served as prime minister from 2021 to 2022, tells an audience at the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem that he had initiated a “process of acquiring and smuggling into Iran tens of thousands of Starlink receptors that would allow continuity of the internet and social networks”.
Starlink, owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, provides satellite internet connections. Iran has previously accused Israel and the United States of smuggling in the devices to undermine its security.
Bennett said the devices were intended to enable protesters to coordinate and ultimately topple the Iranian government.
“Unfortunately, the current incompetent Israeli government stopped doing that,” he says. “And when the protest happened, that infrastructure was not there.”
Netanyahu’s office has not immediately responded to questions on Bennett’s remarks, and SpaceX is not available for comment outside US business hours.
